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Writer's pictureCarol Spangler

Hamburger Steak


Foodies and food fads, sous vide cooking, keto versus paleo diets. . . These are some common terms bandied about in 2020. Trendy foods actually are nothing new, but back in the day, the menu choices were seasonal and limited. 


When my great-grandma was a young wife, boiling was the norm for most meats. And my great-grandpa preferred beef. Grandma often prepared "boiling beef" a generic term for several (tough as a boot) cuts of beef. Think of it spoken as one word "boilingbeef". All of her life, she used a battered iron pot for boiling-beef. To the pot, Grandma would add onion, carrots and potatoes and salt along with the chunk of meat. Next, she covered everything with water. Last, she would plunk on the lid and boil everything for hours. The longer the better. When it was done, Grandma would strain the broth and set it away to cool. It was served as soup the next day, with saltine crackers. But on the first day of cooking, her family enjoyed the boiling-beef with horseradish. 

One winter noon when I was a little girl, we were having dinner at Grandma's. She had fixed boiling-beef. As I was mowing down more than my share of boiling-beef with horseradish, Grandma told about her first experience with Hamburg Steak.Always a good story teller, she began. I kept eating, but listened carefully as the yarn was spun.

"Sometime not too long after World War I ended, the butcher at the Sabetha market ground up some of this new kind of beef. The neighbors just up the street brought some home. They wanted me to taste it." 

So, after the men had finished their dinner and the noon dishes were washed and wiped and put away, Grandma went calling to sample Hamburg Steak. It was a windy day. Grandma fastened on her hat with a long hat pin and walked a short way up the street.

"I could smell it afore I saw it!" Grandma turned up her nose a little at the memory.

"They had me sit down at the kitchen table. They brought me this round piece of flat meat on a plate. They handed me a fork and the salt cellar." "First I sniffed the flat meat, and then I tasted just a little bit of it. No flavor. I added some salt. It didn't help much."

"Try it with some chow-chow," was the suggestion. The homemade, green tomato chow-chow made it taste a little more flavorful. "Then I took a big bite, and it just tasted like the chow-chow. Nothing to it. I finished the Hamburg Steak and the chow-chow. Then I asked for a glass of water from the tap." 

Her neighbors quizzed Grandma, "Well, what did you think of your first taste of Hamburg Steak? It was all the go at the World's Fair in St. Louis several years back, and now it's stylish in all the big cities." 

Grandma thought a minute, and said, "It's not a bad taste. But it's sure doesn't hit the spot like boiling-beef".  

All agreed that boiling-beef had it all over this ground up raw beef shaped into a patty and then fried up in a little grease.

The neighborhood folks nodded together in solid agreement, 

 "Hamburg Steak won't catch on."

of course, as time passed, Grandma came to serve Hamburger Steak on a bun. She particularly enjoyed serving hamburgers along with raw fried potatoes. Both the hamburger and the potatoes were doused with lots of ketchup. Likewise, Grandma continued to serve the time-honored boiling-beef with horseradish. Whatever the menu, I remember all her meals were delicious. 


Fast forward to today. . . I was driving home from a distance. I was thinking about  Grandma's prediction of certain failure for Hamburg Steak. Her pronouncement of the end of this new way of cooking beef made me smile. 

It was close to lunch time and I was hungry, Going through a little town, I stopped at a small diner..The bacon cheeseburger I ordered  was delicious. The glass of water was cold and full of ice cubes--but ice cubes in the ice box are another story for another time. 

After a couple of bites, I raised my glass of ice water to toast Grandma.


I finished my bacon cheeseburger. Here's to the food pioneers who first hashed raw beef, shaped it and fried it up in a little grease.

To the farmers, ranchers, cooks and foodies of the past, present and future, thanks for the amazing food choices available on the menus scattered across America. 

And if I do say so myself, that bacon cheeseburger for lunch sure did hit the spot. 

 

Like many other Americans, Grandma's taste came to appreciate hamburgers. She came to enjoy A&W mama burgers with a mug of cold root beer on Sunday evenings. 

She tried pizza and shrimp. She (warily, at first) welcomed a washer and dryer. She took her first airplane ride when she was 79. She exemplified a zest for life-long learning.

As we enter this new decade of 2020, I'm sure Grandma would welcome new ideas: Learn something new. Sing a new song. Keep a journal (she called hers a diary). Write down your gratitude for new accomplishments. Give new opportunities a chance. She would say, "Don't knock it 'til you try it." I'll bet if she were here right now in 2020, she would ask Alexa to turn up the furnace a couple of degrees! 

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